I agree that Sci-Fi channel in its current incarnation sucks ass ( and not in the good way)
Shows Sci-Fi Needs To Bring Back
[li]Thriller–Some of the best anthology horror episodes ever, plus you gotta love Boris Karloff hosting[/li][li] The shows from the Fifties Sci-Fi used to show on Friday nights[/li][li]Sci-Fi Buzz–Great Harlan Ellison commentaries, plus I’d like to get the Sci-Fi media audience interested in books, too.[/li][li]MST3K–They need to beg Best Brains to come back. Gotta have more Mike and the Bots![/li][li]British SF shows, like Blake’s 7, Doctor Who, and Red Dwarf[/li]They also need to program more great old SF movies like ** When Worlds Collide, The Time Machine, ** and American-International horror flicks.
And dump John Edward, and give James Randi a show in the same time slot!
Sorry but it had to be said. I have given this series my best shot, but I can’t watch it any more. For those of you fortunate enough not to have seen it, it’s basically The Beverly Hillbillies Go Whorehouse Hopping In The Outer Space Equivalent Of West Virginia. All that’s missing is banjo music.
Each week, Uncle Jed & Elly May are visited by a wacky bunch of Hatfields or McCoys knockoffs wearing various outfits modeled from the burlap school of fashion design. Lexx, the ship, is a living being, and the inhabitants subsist on its internal excretions (I might be missing some subtle nuances here as I have to walk away from time to time and puke my guts out).
The resident mechanical entity is a disembodied head with videographic eyes & mouth that has never once offered a shred of technical or even helpful advice. In a recent episode, Elly May reclines in a fit of sexual frustration and says to the head “I wish you had tongue”. ::gags::
Meanwhile, Jethro is some kind of alien zombie who once went on a rampage and killed almost everybody on the ship, but in a recent episode he is kind & sweet and assumes a role as a defense attourny. The character’s actual name is khai, and it can not be mere coincidence that khai means “stinks of urine” in Vietnamese.
The only good part is when Lexx blows up a planet, and that only takes about six seconds.
[sub]The preceding was taken from part of a rant I did in another thread when Lexx first came out.[/sub]
And the problem with this is…? Hey, if you want plausible plots, serious S-F, there’s a lot of good stuff out there, Farscape specifically hops to mind. The Beverly Hillbillies Go Whorehouse Hopping In The Outer Space Equivalent Of West Virginia is just the kind of mindless but amusing comic releif I need after a week of MY gig.
I can’t agree more. Awesome series. Miss it badly.
b.
I have not had the Sci-fi channel long, having finally been forced to digital by the increasingly limited stuff on regular cable and the proliferation of ‘paid commercials’ and ‘infomercials’ showing up after midnight.
It is disappointing, to say the least. Firstly, they need to get rid of that psychic program where this guy spends an hour ‘talking’ to the dead. That’s not Sci-fi, and is crap to begin with.
I’m not a fan of Mystery Science Theater, but there are stacks of cheaply made Sci-fi movies made in the 80s and 90s that could be shown, along with the 2001 series, the complete Alien series, the several years worth of ‘Lost In Space,’ and more.
In my opinion, they need to drop Quantum Leap because I found it boring shortly after they first created it years ago. MTV had some really good, and weird, cartoon series on, when MTV used to actually be good and pushing the envelope, that could be put on Sci-fi, and even HBO had some excellently strange American anime or cartoons they used to show from time to time that would fit right in!
I’ve been pretty disappointed in the Sci-fi channel. They have around 1000 episodes of the original Star Trek and another 1000 of the original Outer Limits, but in the late 70s, there were a lot of cool Sci-fi films being churned out that you can rent in the video store, but not watch on Sci-fi.
Then, to make things worse, over here, around 3 AM, they turn into Infomercials!
Get rid of John Edward, Lexx, Black Scorpion, and Jules Verne.
Get the rights to “Alien Nation” from Fox and start it up again as an original series. Only 22 episodes and 5 movies were originally aired; there’s a lot the show still has to offer, and it was probably before its time. In a perfect world, they’d get back Eric Pierpoint and Gary Graham to reprise their roles.
Move Farscape to a better time than Friday at 8. First, some people actually do watch “The Lone Gunmen” and second, not all sci-fi fans spend their Friday nights at home.
Acquire Star Trek: Deep Space Nine if possible.
Include more old and classic science fiction, espcecially The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits.
And I concur with those who have suggested that the Sci-Fi Channel acquire the Joel Hodgson episodes of MST3K from Comedy Central by any means necessary (I love Mike, but the combination of Joel and Trace was special) and do whatever it takes to get new episodes made.